Tag Archive | "indoor soccer"

35th Consecutive Year of Indoor Soccer Begins in the Newly Formed 23 team Major Arena Soccer League on November 8th in Baltimore

Baltimore – The Baltimore Blast released its 2014-2015 season schedule today with the Syracuse Silver Knights coming to the Baltimore Arena on Friday November 8th at 7:35 p.m. to kick off the season. Representing the top level of indoor soccer in North America, the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) features 23 teams each playing a 20-game slate. The top teams from the former Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) united with teams from the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) to form the MASL in April of 2014. Baltimore will play in the Eastern Division of the 23-team league along with Detroit, Harrisburg, Rochester and Syracuse. Blast opponents from outside the division include Milwaukee, Las Vegas, San Diego and Chicago.

Keeping with the Baltimore Blast tradition of affordable family entertainment, fans will be treated to various promotional items and a variety of theme nights throughout the season including youth t-shirt night, mini soccer ball night, Hall of Fame night along with Boy and Girl Scouts nights.

Season tickets and mini plans for the 2014-2015 Blast season are currently available, while single-game tickets for the upcoming season will go on sale soon. Season tickets and mini plans will be available through the Blast office at 410-73-BLAST (410-732-5278). Single-game tickets will be available at the Baltimore Arena Box Office and at all TicketMaster outlets including TicketMaster phone charge at 410-547-SEAT. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com. For additional information on Blast tickets, call the Blast at

Baltimore – The Baltimore Blast will hold open tryouts in October at the Southeast Regional Recreation Center located at 4021 North Point Boulevard in Baltimore. The Blast will open training camp October 20th and start the 2014-15 MASL season November 8th.

The open tryouts will be held October 11-12 from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and are open to male soccer players ages 18 years and older. College players with remaining eligibility are not permitted in the tryout as per NCAA rules and regulations. Current professional players must have a letter of release from their current club in order to participate.

Players will be assessed by head coach Danny Kelly and assistant coach David Bascome. Players who make it through the open tryouts will be invited to attend a three-day mini-camp October 15-17.

“We’re always looking for players, and the open tryout is another avenue for prospective players to get in front of the coaching staff and show their skill set. Ultimately it’s their chance to prove they have what it takes to play at a professional level” said Kelly.

The registration fee for each player who attends open tryouts is $100. Space is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis; walk-in players will not be granted a tryout. All players must submit a tryout application to the Blast office by October 8th. Applications are available at www.baltimoreblast.com.

Season tickets are on sale now with mini plans and single-game tickets for the 2014-15 Blast season going on sale in September. Season tickets and mini plans will be available through the Blast office at 410-73-BLAST. Single-game tickets will be available at the Baltimore Arena Box Office and at all TicketMaster outlets including TicketMaster phonecharge at 410-547-SEAT. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com. For additional information on Blast tickets, call the Blast at 410-73-BLAST.

As a side note, if you have young children and can make it down there by Sunday, there are worse ways to spend two hours. It was fun, full of energy and even old folks like us will recognize a lot of their skating characters.

I had a good time last night despite the fact that I was completely aggravated about twenty seconds into my entry into the building.

As Robert Palmer would sing once upon a time — “I’m…..looking for clues.”

********************************

Without fail, anytime I go to an event in the Baltimore Arena, I always take a glance up to the rafters to see the Blast championship banners that hang from Lombard Street aside of the building. I worked for the team in ’82-83, ’83-84 and ’84’-85, which were also years the Blast captured the Eastern Division championship in the MISL. We also won the league title in 1983-84. Those are the four banners that represent “the old days” of the Blast and they’re still up…a faded yellow, perhaps, but still hanging in the ceiling of the Arena. There are other Blast banners hanging, as well, symbolic of the excellence established by in “the current era” which started in 1998.

They were all hanging up on Thursday night, right where they should be.

Two other banners, though, were missing.

In 1992-93 and 1993-94 the Baltimore Spirit – an entry in the National Professional Soccer League – won the Eastern Division Championship. For the uninitiated, the Spirit came about after the MISL (which contained the Blast) folded following the 1991-92 campaign. Faced with the prospect of having no indoor soccer in Baltimore for the first time since 1980, a local businessman – Bill Stealey – put an expansion team in the league and was essentially forced to “re-name” the franchise due to a legal situation involving the old league (a “union league”) and the new league (“non union”) and the fact that the “new owner” and “old owner” couldn’t agree on a price tag for the Blast name and logo.

Make no mistake about it, though, the Spirit was the Blast. Kenny Cooper was the man in charge, the fan base was identical, a large number of players carried over from the MISL to the NPSL and other than the name – Spirit – nothing changed from the final days of the Blast in June of 1992.

The tradition of great Blast soccer carried over to ’92-93 and ’93-94 when the Spirit won those two Eastern Division titles.

Naturally, having worked in the Arena as part of the Blast and Spirit from 1981 until 1998, anytime I go to the Arena I glance up at the Blast banners at the Lombard Street end and then to the Spirit banners at the Baltimore Street end.

Except last night, the two Spirit banners weren’t there.

Blast banners: there

Spirit banners: not there

I immediately went to Facebook and asked, “Who is responsible for the Spirit banners not being there?” I also called it “bush-league” that they weren’t up there.

A few Facebook friends quickly chimed in to tell me they haven’t been up for a couple of years.

Evidently, they’re being cleaned.

For a couple of years.

Who’s cleaning them, the Orioles?

A Blast representative reached out to me quickly and assured me the current team has nothing to do with the removal of the Spirit banners from the rafters.

I hope that’s true.

I’d be very disappointed to find out the Blast called for those banners to be removed.

The person who told me the current organization had nothing to do with the Spirit banners not being up there is a trustworthy man, so I believe him. Especially since I signed him to play for the team in ’92-93 and hired him to work in the front office (where he still remains) when his playing days were over.

So…where are the banners?

Being cleaned?

Really?

Or did someone in Arena management just assume they were no longer important enough to hang from the rafters?

If those banners were removed intentionally, it’s a bush-league move and it needs to be corrected.

If, in fact, they’re being cleaned (for two years), pay the bill, get them back, and hang ’em up.

I’m looking for clues.

They belong up there.

And, on behalf of people like Kenny Cooper, Jason Dieter, Barry Stitz, Steve Nichols, Mike Conway and everyone else who played for those two teams, I’m going to do my best to get those banners back up in the rafters of the Baltimore Arena.